1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to signal and speech processing for coding strategies in medical devices, and more particularly, to hearing prostheses such as cochlear implants.
2. Related Art
There are several electrical stimulation devices that use an electrical signal to stimulate nerve, tissue or muscle fibers in a user. Cochlear™ implants and similar hearing devices apply a stimulating signal to the cochlea of the ear to stimulate a percept of hearing. More particularly, these systems include a microphone that receives ambient sounds, a signal processor that converts selected sounds according to a speech coding strategy into corresponding stimulating signals, and an implanted electrode array for delivering stimuli to the recipient. The recipient (also referred to as a patient herein) receives a perception of hearing based on the nerve stimulation.
Although hearing implants have been widely used, there is an on-going need to improve the fidelity of speech and sound percepts which are experienced by the users.